One of the big draws about Joburg for me was a world heritage site about an hour outside town called "The Cradle of Humankind." The name kind of says it all--it's an area where tons of fossils and remnants of our early ancestors have been found.
The drive out of Joburg was an interesting experience itself. The more I see of this city, the more I think it looks like Los Angeles. One similarity is that it takes a loooong time to get past the city part and into the countryside. Driving though the city and into suburbia is a cool way to get a sense of life here though. I don't really mind traveling alone, but I really missed having someone else in the car that I could hand the camera to while I drove so they could take pictures of all the interesting things I was passing--crowds of people walking down the side of the freeway on the way to work, busy marketplaces, a beautiful college campus, and the posters which someone has plastered to every park bench, bus stop and public trash can in the city, which advertise "penis enlargement."
When I did make it out of the city, the countryside was really beautiful. It doesn't look like Cape Town at all. It looks much more like what you probably envision when you think "Africa:" wide, grassy, yellowish plains against a big, impossibly blue sky.
Maropeng was the name of my first stop, it's a museum about some of the history of the area's archeological sites. Of course it's interesting to learn about our very early ancestors, but the presentation of the information at this museum is at times baffling. At one point in the museum you go on a short boat ride underground. It's something akin to "It's a Small World," but with less educational value. Of course, I'm always totally delighted by that kind of nonsense.
I headed from Maropeng to the nearby Sterkfontein Caves. The caves are 20 million years old and 40 meters underground if I remember correctly. Somewhere inside, a very important skeleton of one of man's very ancient ancestors was found. The poor fellow fell down a crevasse many hundreds of thousands of years ago only to be fossilized and dug up by modern archaeologists. It looks like "Goonies" inside the cave, you have to crawl around under a lot of big rocks, and we got to see a bat, so that was all great for me.
I was tired after the museum and the caves, but I needed to press on! There were more attractions awaiting me. Within the same big park is a place called the Rhino and Lion reserve, which is basically self explanatory. What I didn't know about this place was that you get to drive around in your own car--a do it yourself safari, you might say. So I proceeded down the dirt road to see some animals and dirty my rental car.
When I got to the lion area I was surprised that the lions were napping right next to the dirt road. One of them was even napping IN the road which meant I had to drive my dinky VW over some big rocks to avoid her. Then I wondered if anyone has ever had to change a tire in the park right next to a pride of lions. Luckily, I didn't have to.
The Rhino and Lion park has its own ancient cave and though I had just spent an hour in the impressive Sterkfontein Caves, I was still interested in this one. If nothing else, I wanted to see how it earned the name "The Wonder Cave." The Wonder Cave is not as old as Sterkfontein--10 million years instead of 20 million--and not as deep either, but it is much more adorned with beautiful, white, limestone stalactites and stalagmites. It's like an underground rock cathedral. The tites and mites take about 100 years to gain one centimeter in length, so the massive size of these ones makes the cave's age apparent.
By the time I emerged from the Wonder Cave it was almost 4pm. This worried me because the guard at the entrance to the park had warned me that most attractions would close at 4 and I still had one thing left to do. I wanted to hold a baby lion.
I drove as fast as my little VW could handle on gravel and dirt roads toward the visitor center where the baby lions live. I got there just as they were beginning to close but ran though the gate anyways. I stood near the baby lion enclosure hoping some employee would see me and take pity, scooping a cub into my arms. That didn't happen, so instead I took pictures of their kitten like faces and their oversized paws though the bars until the employees kicked me out. Holding a baby lion will get added to the ever lengthening list of things I want to do someday when I come back to Africa.
When I did make it out of the city, the countryside was really beautiful. It doesn't look like Cape Town at all. It looks much more like what you probably envision when you think "Africa:" wide, grassy, yellowish plains against a big, impossibly blue sky.
Maropeng was the name of my first stop, it's a museum about some of the history of the area's archeological sites. Of course it's interesting to learn about our very early ancestors, but the presentation of the information at this museum is at times baffling. At one point in the museum you go on a short boat ride underground. It's something akin to "It's a Small World," but with less educational value. Of course, I'm always totally delighted by that kind of nonsense.
I headed from Maropeng to the nearby Sterkfontein Caves. The caves are 20 million years old and 40 meters underground if I remember correctly. Somewhere inside, a very important skeleton of one of man's very ancient ancestors was found. The poor fellow fell down a crevasse many hundreds of thousands of years ago only to be fossilized and dug up by modern archaeologists. It looks like "Goonies" inside the cave, you have to crawl around under a lot of big rocks, and we got to see a bat, so that was all great for me.
I was tired after the museum and the caves, but I needed to press on! There were more attractions awaiting me. Within the same big park is a place called the Rhino and Lion reserve, which is basically self explanatory. What I didn't know about this place was that you get to drive around in your own car--a do it yourself safari, you might say. So I proceeded down the dirt road to see some animals and dirty my rental car.
When I got to the lion area I was surprised that the lions were napping right next to the dirt road. One of them was even napping IN the road which meant I had to drive my dinky VW over some big rocks to avoid her. Then I wondered if anyone has ever had to change a tire in the park right next to a pride of lions. Luckily, I didn't have to.
The Rhino and Lion park has its own ancient cave and though I had just spent an hour in the impressive Sterkfontein Caves, I was still interested in this one. If nothing else, I wanted to see how it earned the name "The Wonder Cave." The Wonder Cave is not as old as Sterkfontein--10 million years instead of 20 million--and not as deep either, but it is much more adorned with beautiful, white, limestone stalactites and stalagmites. It's like an underground rock cathedral. The tites and mites take about 100 years to gain one centimeter in length, so the massive size of these ones makes the cave's age apparent.
By the time I emerged from the Wonder Cave it was almost 4pm. This worried me because the guard at the entrance to the park had warned me that most attractions would close at 4 and I still had one thing left to do. I wanted to hold a baby lion.
I drove as fast as my little VW could handle on gravel and dirt roads toward the visitor center where the baby lions live. I got there just as they were beginning to close but ran though the gate anyways. I stood near the baby lion enclosure hoping some employee would see me and take pity, scooping a cub into my arms. That didn't happen, so instead I took pictures of their kitten like faces and their oversized paws though the bars until the employees kicked me out. Holding a baby lion will get added to the ever lengthening list of things I want to do someday when I come back to Africa.
There was a recent interview with the "District 9" director in which he said LA was one of his favorite cities because it reminded him of Johannesburg. He calls it "Johannesburg lite."
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